Cayenne Pepper Health Benefits

There are many expert herbalists who believe that cayenne pepper is one of the most valuable and essential herbs in the world. It doesn’t just benefit the digestive system but also works to help the heart as well. It is also thought to act as a catalyst or “booster” for the impact of other beneficial herbs being taken.

Cayenne is an excellent source of Vitamins A, B complex and C, and it contains a great deal of natural potassium and calcium, which is of major benefit to the heart.

Dr. Patrick Quillin:

Cayenne pepper – prized for thousands of years for its healing power. Folklore from around the world recounts amazing results using cayenne pepper in simple healing and in baffling health problems. But cayenne pepper is not just a healer from ancient history.
Recent clinical studies have been conducted on many of the old-time health applications for this miracle herb. Again and again, the therapeutic value of cayenne pepper has been medically validated.

Recently as they described in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, a trio of doctors working together in Italy were able to decrease the dyspepsia (indigestion) symptoms of one patient by more than 50%. Their method was red pepper powder. They conducted a study with 30 patients who had “functional dyspepsia” which is where the patient suffers from pain, bloating and nausea after eating, without any known physical or medical condition behind it. In the study, half the patients were given a placebo and the other half were given 2.5g of red pepper powder per day (each group had three tablets per day, before every meal.) The study went on for five weeks and the participants rated their symptoms every day on a scale of zero to three (three being severe pain.) At the end of the third week, the group taking the red pepper was showing a siginifcant decrease in symptoms compared to the placebo group. By the end of the study the pepper group had experienced a reduction of 60% in symptom severity when measured against their initial scores. This was across four key areas of pain, feeling uncomfortable full, nausea, and general overall wellbeing.

Heart
Believe it or not, cayenne has been witnessed to stop a heart attack within 30 seconds. An elderly man in Oregon had a serious heart attack. His daughter was on the scene and was able to get some cayenne extract into his mouth. Medics who attended pronounced him dead at the scene – but within a few minutes he had come to! During the ambulance journey to hospital he was semi-conscious, but his daughter kept giving him the cayenne extract. By the time the ambulance arrived at the hospital he said he felt absolutely fine and wanted to go straight home to continue his normal daily routine! The doctor was extremely interested in the cayenne being given, and said it was the most miraculous thing he’d ever encountered.

Digestion
For people with reduced digestive function, cayenne can help stimulate growth of healthy tissue in the stomach and improve peristalsis in the intestines. It helps with keeping you regular and it also helps the body take up the maximum nutrients from your food. It also stimulates the production of acid which is needed for digestion. (This is especially important if your diet is rich in protein.) Our digestive systems play a really big part in our physical AND mental health, since the digestive function processes fuel for the heart, brain, muscles, glands, etc.

Cardiovascular Benefits
Capsicum has been well known as an aid to metabolism for some years. It has a variety of beneficial effects on the whole CV system. It can improve your cardio performance while at the same time actually lowering blood pressure. It also gives a great energy boost and many herbalists have used it for years to restore stamina and strength and overcome tiredness. It has a great stimulating effect without the usual side effects of hypertension or palpitations which can occur with most stimulants.

Due to capsicum’s effect of improving circulation to all parts of the body and heightened organ function, it helps with the speedy delivery of nutrients and fuels to the right places in the body, so it can also help recovery from exertion and injury. Capsicum’s ability to improve circulation, digestive function and metabolism makes it an excellent natural stimulant and one of the best herbs available.